The Arms of the Angel
by Nerweniel
Summary: 50 years post-HP. Albus Dumbledore reflects on his life and on the love he lost so many years earlier. Songfic of "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan. ADMM.
1. Chapter One

**DISCLAIMER: **Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, the song "Angel" belongs to Sarah McLachlan.  
  
**Chapter One**  
  
"Spend all your time waiting  
For that second chance  
For a break that would make it okay"  
  
Albus Dumbledore hesitatingly smiled as his wrinkled, shaking hands slowly laid down the bouquet of wild roses he'd been holding on the light grey, marble tombstone before him. His sky blue eyes turned into watery puddles as he slowly, carefully, used the thumb of his left hand to gently trace the contours of the carved into the stone name of she who rested here.  
"Minerva Caitriona McGonagall."  
His voice didn't even tremble as he pronounced those words- the words which he, because of his increasingly bad eyesight, could only read with his fingers now. But as long as his old tongue could still form those three words, the sweetest in his world, he would be thankful. Those- and those three other words, which almost automatically flew from his mouth as the soft rose petals touched the marble.  
"I love you."  
This was the daily ritual of the more than two-hundred year old man. No matter how rheumatic, how sad, how miserable he felt, not a day passed without fresh roses to adorn the grave of the only woman the ex-Headmaster had ever loved.  
As he stood up again, heavily leaning on the walking stick that had been his constant companion for quite a few years, he no longer looked down upon the bare tombstone covering her grave.  
All he saw was her face.  
That pale, delicate face with the sharp features, with the lips that could smile so sweetly when she wanted them to- the most beautiful painting he had ever had the honour to witness, encircled by a waterfall of thick, black hair, falling down her shoulders, her back...  
He closed his eyes, but the tears had already escaped and he felt them seep into the deep wrinkles which had been carving his cheeks since that one day, so long ago...  
It was all his own fault, he knew.  
Once he had had his chance- right after the war against the Dark Lord Grindelwald, which they had ended together.  
But he had shaken his head, mature and wise as always, and stepped aside, telling her to find a husband and "start having babies", as he had so harshly put it.  
He should have known she wouldn't leave.  
And he had waited, through all the years, for a pause, for a break, for the peace that would finally allow him to throw his arms around her.  
But when that peace had come, she had left.


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

"There's always some reason  
To feel not good enough  
And it's hard at the end of the day"

As Albus stood there, still seemingly frozen, gazing down at her last resting place, he remembered her dying day as if it were yesterday. In fact, he mentally corrected his own thoughts, to him, that terrible day more than five decades earlier was just yesterday.

The strange, cruel twists time made didn't even surprise him anymore. They had become a steadying, almost soothing presence in whatever he had left of a life.

They didn't even hurt him anymore.

And yet, as he closed his eyes, he still cried in an endlessly lonely silence when, as if in a dream, he, again, knelt down beside her almost lifeless body. The pale face motionless and painful- the eternal fire in the fierce green eyes almost extinguished- the ever-energetic breath reduced to short, laborious pants as she looked up for one, one last time, straight into his teary blue eyes.

"A-Albus…"

And all of a sudden, as, amidst the smoke, the dust fell down on both their wet faces and her last, weak smile lit up the world for one final second, he opened his eyes and saw. Saw how the misty green of her eyes mirrored every feeling that had ever shone from his own, blue ones. Saw how her smile softened her sharp features- and how she only smiled for him. Saw in the way her trembling thumb softly caressed the back of his hand, saw in the way her hair flowed beside her face, that she loved him.

That he had been wrong all along.


End file.
